A tremendous loss

I received crushing news yesterday. One of my closest friends from school passed away suddenly and unexpectedly over the weekend. I worked with Nancy Long for 23 years. She was a dear, dear friend. In my school, co-workers are more than mere co-workers... they are like family. I am devastated.

Nancy was on vacation in Tennessee with her husband, Kenn. She told him she didn't feel well and went to rest on the couch. She fell asleep there for the night and never woke up. We don't know what happened yet.

Nancy was due to retire in October. She needed to work only one more quarter and was going to ride off into the sunset with a 30 year teaching career behind her. She never made it. She was in her early 50's, thin as a rail, didn't smoke and didn't drink. She did beat cancer many years ago, but I cannot imagine that had anything to do with her untimely death.

We traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia with the Long family in 1996 when Michael was two years old. I worked for Kenn Long several summers many years ago. The bed my granddaughter Sveta currently sleeps in belonged to the Long family originally. Nancy and I swapped classrooms just last week (due to new teaching assignments). We worked very closely together and shared a special working relationship. We had even convinced our students  that we were brother/sister. It was our joke that went on for many years. Nancy and I had very similar personalities, we were both short in stature with dark hair and brown eyes. It didn't take much to sell the kids on the this joke. Once the kids had taken the bait we would always playfully argue in front of them about who was the older sibling. I even called her "Sis" to keep the joke running. The kids got a real kick out of it. To this day, students (current and former) still believe it.

I am going to miss my friend. I regret we didn't get to have a retirement party for her and give her the send off she earned.

I do take comfort that Nancy was a believer. She is now absent from the body, but present with the Lord. I will miss you greatly, Sis.